Darren’s Diary – Kicking The Habit (Day 36) – Tuesday, 27th March 

Even though I was thinking about changing to 9am slots, it seemed really pointless with five days remaining to change a system that seemed to be working so I decided to get back to normal ways today. 

As mentioned in this morning’s piece, yesterday was an experience I don’t wish to go through again anytime soon.  And this is coming from someone not directly affected.  Imagine what it’s like for the families still coming to terms with the tragedy.

I had a lazy start to the day.  Indeed, I got brought in two cups of coffee in bed.  Thought for a moment that it might be Darren’s Day but bar celebrating five full weeks off the fags, it was just a chance to have an extra bit of time in bed and it was greatly appreciated 🙂

Today’s the first day I’ve had time to even think about cigarettes recently between the busy schedule the last few days.  Now, it was briefly considered coming home from Clones on Saturday but today is the first day in a while I’ve had anything resembling a serious craving.

Now, it hasn’t got to the point where I’m scraping the walls and eager to get down to the shop.  It’s just there in the back of my throat doing its own thing.  It’s not really bothering me so I won’t bother it.  When I leave the house shortly, I’ll get a packet of chewing gum and that will nip it in the bud.  No panic.

It’s been a quite enough day.  I was writing until nearly 11pm last night so I was glad to leave it until nearly 12pm today.  Caught up with my aunt Julie for a few minutes, did some errants for my Mam and started remembering I’m meant to cover sport here too so got back attacking that.

The great thing about looking at Galway sport is you find out about new people every day.  And as Galway Daily continues to grow, I hope we start to reach out further and mix more with the county’s sporting community and find the stories that don’t often make the main headlines.

We’ve a Gabriel Dossan competing in Romania this week at the European under 22 boxing championships.  Salthill’s James Molloy is refereeing the Division Three Football League Final on Saturday.  And Garbally’s Colm Reilly starts for Ireland’s under 19s rugby team tomorrow.

And Kerry’s ladies football is in crisis after having their points won against Mayo deducted for fielding unregistered players.  It puts the Kingdom on a relegation head-to-head with Westmeath.  But it brings Mayo back into the National League mix meaning Galway’s semi-final qualification is no way certain yet.

Amazingly, I’ve written tonight’s entry with a mild constant craving.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s bound to be one or two more big ones yet and there’s still the ‘Night Out’ test to be passed.  But I’m not having tantrums everytime a Carroll, Silk Cut, Major or Benson starting tempting my mind.

I might wait a few days before we start the reflecting period.  However, there’s still 10 weekly entries to come after Saturday.  But I am going to miss sharing these experiences.  It’s started to feel like an account on my day rather than the fight to finish an old habit.  We’ll share some more again tomorrow.

Darren